Leeching B.O. (one of my college professors, not body odor)...
What our youth group needs...
Tradition
Tradition will give our kids a sense of identity, that when we do things on a regular basis, they will say, "this is who we are" and they will become more devoted to it.

What's wrong with this perspective?
I am very for this, but we are missing one element that is essential to the spiritual growth of the church and also in number and in challenge. The Holy Spirit. Often it is our traditions that get in the way of the Holy Spirit, and it is only at retreats that we see the Holy Spirit move, because that is the only time when we break down tradition. This I saw in my youth group as a HS student. Of course, it is the Student and the leader themselves who need to always be in cannel with the Holy Spirit, however, sometimes, we just totally forget about who the He is and forget to let him reign. On our leadership committees and in our planning of our "traditions" we need to step back and pray. And then when they are on the calendar, let the Holy Spirit change anything that comes along. My conclusion? Simply that teens can become equally identified and committed to the works of the Holy Spirit as they can with Tradition, and the Holy Spirit is more essential to the Church. This is not to boot Tradition out.
Secondly, a youth group can also find identity in being random, and doing things on their own without any tradition (even without the Holy Spirit). But essentially, God is the one whom they need to be identified with. As Wilhoit suggests in his book "Christian Education and the Search for Meaning" that the goal of Christian education is to help believers find meaning for their lives. This goes into many levels, but essentially, if we don't have the right meaning, then the lives of our Teens are going to be no different from the world. There is only one narrow path to God, the rest is worldly and leads to death. Farewell my friends, my prayer for you is love and peace and grace in the name of Jesus. That we may turn to him all the time.